Hollywood Girls Club » (Reprint)

MAGGIE MARR is a writer and producer in Los Angeles. She began her Hollywood career as an agent, representing writers, directors, and actors. She recently completed a television pilot and is releasing her new book Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club in April 2008.

The climb to the top of the Hollywood ladder is treacherous, especially in stilettos. And as any A-lister knows, even harder than getting to the top is staying there. Hollywood Girls Club follows the well-heeled footsteps of three power players who are determined not to lose their footing: Jessica, the agency president with hot, demanding clients and an ice-cold fiance; Celeste, the megastar whose action-flick-director husband just dumped her for a fresh-faced newcomer; and Lydia, the producer with the magic touch whose new boss is personally waging a campaign to ruin her career. They’ve been friends for a long time, and in the poisonous petri dish of the film industry, having friends with power is crucial—but having friends you can trust is even better.

For the first time, the stars have aligned and Jessica, Celeste, and Lydia are all working on the same project, a big-budget action movie called Seven Minutes Past Midnight. The movie is going to be good—blockbuster good—if they can ever get it wrapped. But between complicated personal lives, mind games and backstabbing, and a movie studio head with an unfortunate resemblance to an evil leprechaun, there has been more than the usual amount of chaos during filming. It will take all their collective clout to get this movie into theaters. Together with Mary Anne, a naive writer from Minnesota whom they plucked from obscurity to polish Lydia’s script, the girls fight, Hollywood style, to make this film a box-office hit.

Shifting from one woman’s perspective to another’s, this addictive page-turner takes you inside L.A. to reveal the inner workings of Hollywood and howstrong-willed women navigate the shifting landscape of influence and control. No more tales from the assistant’s office, Hollywood Girls Club is the story of the players themselves, with their sometimes ugly motivations, humanizing frailties, grandiose scandals, and the lasting friendships you can find, even in the Hollywood jungle.

Publishers Weekly

Hollywood power-puff Marr pulls back the curtain on the wizards of Tinseltown, exposing a quartet of shameless, shoe-crazy ladies bent on building fame and fortune through blockbusters. Here's Celese "Cici" Solange, the stunning movie queen clinging to stardom by a manicured fingernail; her agent, Jessica Caulfield, president of CTA, "the most powerful agency in town," determined to keep her top-notch client list and position; billion-dollar producer Lydia Albright, fighting to a bring a sure-fire hit to the screen before she's fired by a new studio chief; and writer Mary Ann Meyers, plucked from obscurity to write the $1.5-million screenplay that brings all the players together. Marr knows her power-hungry vipers, thanks to her stint at the talent agency ICM. Though her insider's tell-all bristles at the plight of women who compete ("Talent representation was a male business; it was sales"), this novel is less about hit-making than cold compromiseâ "With the paparazzi, with the press, with the studios, with the producers, with myself," as Celeste concedes. The girls' club, cutthroat and callous, turns out to be a lot like the boys' club, but cattier and more fun to read about. A sequel is in the works. (Apr.)